Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
Climate geoscientist Joseph Shea didn't have to go far to find evidence of what he calls "exceptional'' hot and dry weather in British Columbia this year. He says he was still gathering raspberries in his garden in Prince George, B.C., last week as temperatures neared 20 C, at a time when the historical average maximum is about 9 C.
The ongoing drought in many parts of B.C. is causing some rivers in the province's northern Interior to reach their driest mid-October levels in years. In Prince George, the unusually low waters have locals worried. Harriet Schoeter moved to the northern B.C. city 60 years ago, and loves walking the shore where the Fraser and Nechako rivers meet. This week, the water was so low she could almost walk right across.
The downstream effects of the Kenney Dam weren’t felt right away. Growing up on the Saik’uz First Nation in the 1970s, Chief Priscilla Mueller remembers a time when the Nechako River was overflowing with spawning salmon in July and August. Elders would set nets and families would help clean the fish. Smoke shacks ran continuously, preparing the food for winter, and freezers would be filled with the abundant stocks.
Nikolaus Gantner is searching for clues in 12 mysterious deaths along British Columbia’s Nechako River. It’s not your usual whodunnit. The dead are white sturgeon, North America’s largest and longest-living freshwater fish. The species has been around for more than 200 million years, sharing the planet eons ago with dinosaurs.
A group of B.C. First Nations are calling on Australian mining giant Rio Tinto Alcan to release more water into the Nechako River after a sudden die-off of endangered white sturgeon. Last month, B.C.’s Ministry of Land, Water and Resource Stewardship reported 11 dead adult white sturgeon had been found in the Nechako River — an unusual occurrence. White sturgeon can grow to six metres long and live more than 100 years. They are an endangered species with between 300 and 600 remaining in the wild. Scientists said the fish had not died from disease, chemical exposure or due to fishing, and had no signs of injury. The government then reached out to local First Nations.
Firstly, in my five decades of involvement with the Cheslatta Carrier Nation, I have been involved in and witness to the many issues and processes regarding the Nechako River, the Kemano I and II projects, and the 1987 and 1997 settlement agreements. I have represented Cheslatta in the British Columbia Utilities Commission hearings, the Nechako Watershed Council and the Nechako River Roundtable and I am also a director of the Nechako Kitamaat Development Fund (NKDF).
